Recently, Al’s Body Shop on State Road 135 North has been more than place to get a car fixed. It’s been a place to help someone in need.
Esther Gott, Al’s wife and co-owner of the business, has been hosting garage sales at the shop in order to raise money for her daughter-in-law’s mother’s cancer treatments.
Barb Blodgett of Taylorsville got sick while at work one day back in May.
“I knew I was having issues, but I didn’t think it was cancer,” she said. She called her doctor and they took her right in for a colonoscopy at Columbus Regional Hospital.
That same day, Blodgett’s brother had a seizure. He was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and two days later, Blodgett was diagnosed with rectal cancer.
Blodgett and her brother decided that going to the Mayo Clinic was the best option for them. “They are amazing,” she said.
She was diagnosed with stage two cancer and a stage three tumor. Her plan was four-and-a-half months of chemo and five days of radiation. The chemo has not worked, so they are going to perform surgery on Tuesday, Sept. 8.
“People think it’s never gonna happen to them, but then, boom,” she said. “You get the wind knocked out of you.”
Blodgett has felt loved on by so many people in this time, she said. Her daughter has done a yard sale as well as a Facebook fundraiser, her sister is hosting a fish fry on Saturday, Sept. 12, and Gott has done two big sales and will have a car wash at Al’s on Friday, Sept. 4 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Gott has called for donations of sale items from people in the community, all to raise money for Blodgett, whom Gott described as “a really sweet lady.”
Blodgett said she’s grateful for all the support she’s received. Someone even donated $400 to her anonymously.
“These people don’t even know me. All the hate in the world,” Blodgett said through tears, “there is still good. I don’t even know where to begin to tell people how grateful I am.”
Blodgett said she is thankful, blessed, and positive that she and her brother will both beat this.
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